Welcome to part 25 in a series of non-fiction book reviews, originally based on the idea that the books I request tell you everything you need to know about me. I have, after so many chapters of this series, realised that all these posts say about me is that this was just a place to put these reviews, but now I can see how broad my non-fiction reading is, and how many interesting, good (and sometimes not-so-good) books and topics I've had a chance to explore. Today we have three books from the Object Lessons series, which is a series of 'short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.' I love these, and have previously read Sticker, Blackface, Fat, OK, Glitter, Gin, TV, Recipe, Wine, and Trench Coat. There are a total of 92 books in the series, so more than ten percent. Not bad! Today I add Videotape, Cat and Taco.
Videotape (Object Lessons) by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy
This a book specifically about videotapes. Not the machines, not the content, but the tapes themselves. Can this be interesting? The author places this object in a broader historical and political context, looking at how it affected and was affected by a broad range of socio-economic factors. It addresses the topic in a variety of locations - mainly America, the UK, France, Iran and communist Eastern Europe. It covers a lot of ground for such a slim volume looking at the rise, fall and possible afterlife of an object that was ubiquitous in many of our lives for a decade or so, and is now largely gone.
All books in the Object Lesson series have some element of personal reflection. this one is more of a memoir than many. It's not so much about 'cat' as it is about Gus and Toby (Rebecca's cats) and other cats she has lived with, loved and lost. Which is not to say there are not facts about cats scattered throughout this book - but that's not the point. This is a memoir, with the cats as a focus as Rebecca contemplates life, the meaning of work and what she wants for her future. I really enjoyed this, maybe because my story and my struggles are not too different from hers.
Taco (Object Lessons) by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado
For me this was the weakest of the three Object Lessons, partly because of how it was written and partly because of me. I have recently realised that descriptions of food bore me, so that's a problem for me. I just don't care about food that much. So why request this book? Because I only just worked that out about myself! Also, I wasn't expecting quite so much describing of taco fillings.
There are arguments in this book that seem very repetitious, harping on and on about authenticity. Again, these might be interesting to some people, but I settled this for myself long ago. I found the discussions that were situated in the broader cultural sphere interesting but still repetitive. They somehow manage to be too shallow and too deep at the same time. I think it sits in the tension felt in the US between Mexican and American and where they intersect. As an Australian, this either needed to be more teased out (except this wasn't the book that was being written). I did learn that Taco Bell, a company that required a 20 year legal battle to open in Australia, is terrible. Too much cumin.
The language is a little odd - the author repeatedly uses the word 'thusly' which is not a word that adds much value and seemed fake fancy to me. So, to sum up - this one didn't interest me, but may well be more interesting to people with different tastes or from a different region.
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